Children with Tourette syndrome: results of psychological tests given prior to drug treatment.

There have been several recent reports on the neuropsychological integrity of children and adults with Tourette syndrome (TS). However, the possible effects of tic-controlling medications on the test performance of subjects have not been thoroughly investigated, although drugs commonly used in the treatment of TS, such as haloperidol, have been shown to affect learning and behavior. In this study, 10 children diagnosed as having Gilles de la Tourette syndrome were individually administered a battery of psychological tests prior to starting drug treatment. Since a wide range of deficits and processing inefficiencies has been reported in association with the psychological functioning of children with Tourette's disorder, the test battery used was designed to include both measures of contemporary global functioning and measures designed to focus upon particular functional areas. Data analyses revealed a number of specific impairments in TS children relative to age-appropriate levels and levels of global functioning (i.e., IQ scores). The study revealed a number of graphomotor, nonmotor visual-perceptual, and receptive verbal deficits. In addition, a high frequency (50%) of the sample manifested significant Verbal-Performance IQ discrepancies. Results of this study, on a population of nonmedicated TS children, substantiated and extended findings of several previous reports which identified a number of circumscribed weaknesses in the functioning of children with Tourette's disorder.